


Oh, Love

by orphan_account



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Cheating, Howard is a dick, M/M, bottom!howard, but deep down he cares, or is it other way around
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-12-16
Packaged: 2018-09-01 22:33:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8640727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Steve recently broke up with his girlfriend and kept moping around, so his friends, fed up with his self destructive behavior, make him sign up for a dating site, hoping new a new date would lift his mood. And oh, boy, not only his mood got lifted up ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In this universe Howard is rich and owns Stark Industries, but he didn't create SHIELD. Peggy works as his COO, he runs the company as well.

“Oh, god, no you didn’t”, Steve gasped, scandalized.

“Yes, I did, old man”, Natasha grinned, taunting him by dangling the phone in front of his face, only to snatch it back right before Steve grabbed it.

“Judging by your love life and your ‘love can’t be found online’”, Clint mocked with his voice low, “Then, yes, you’re an old man, and you really need to get laid”, he said as he popped another grape into his mouth.

Meanwhile Steve tried to tackle Nat, but to no avail, she _was_ in the university’s taekwondo team, infamous by never losing one single match. Giving up, he flopped down on the couch beside Clint, looking absolutely miserable.

“Aw, cheer up, Cap, it’s not like I’ve posted your nudes on that site. _Although…_ ” she looked upwards, cheekily tapping the phone on her palm.

“ _God,_ no!” Steve was red like a tomato, pleading for mercy with his puppy eyes.

They all good-naturedly laughed, well, except for Steve, of course.

***

Steve ended up keeping the profile on the dating site. After Nat’s suggestions, he reluctantly decided to upload a picture of himself that was taken few months aback from his football practice by his girlfriend, _ex_ -girlfriend. He was beaming in it, looking sideways, talking with someone.

After few hours, messages started pouring into his inbox, filled with absolute filth. He almost quit right there and then, until one message popped.

_‘Hello’_

Curious, he writes back a simple ‘ _Hi’_  back after few minutes , excited. He really did think it was impossible to get love online, however, when he checked the sender’s profile, he seemed to be a nice guy. More than than, actually. Age hidden, although looked like he was in his thirties, and was wearing a three piece suit in the profile picture, so, rich one at that.

Steve had a feeling that he has seen this man somewhere, but he couldn’t quite place it where and when he has seen him. While he was thinking about it, another message came in.

_‘You seem like a half decent looking guy, want to meet up?’_

“Wow, rude”, says Bucky, surprising Steve, who didn’t even realize his best friend was creeping up on him from behind.

“Says a guy who reads other people’s messages from behind their back, god, Buck, I already told you to make at least _some_ noise while moving around here”, he huffed. Meanwhile his friend climbed over the couch to sit beside him, grabbing his phone from his hands. “No, Bucky”, but it was already late, Bucky was sprinting with it towards the hallway, hastily typing down a reply.

Steve was already getting fed up with all his friends grabbing his phone and doing things instead of him. Well, he _did_ mop around after his breakup with his girlfriend of three years, and he absolutely had no idea how to flirt with other people now, as he was out of the game for far too long. But that doesn’t mean they could just ram into his little bubble and make him date random people.

By the time he got to Bucky’s room’s door, he got his phone back. He checked the conversation and he almost had a heart attack from what Bucky typed in instead of him.

_‘If you’re ready to get your little ass pounded into the mattress, so you won’t feel it for a week, sure”._


	2. Chapter 2

Howard actually chokes on his drink, when he receives the message from a seemingly innocent looking guy. He lost count on how many drinks he had, but he was sober enough to know that he wanted to get fucked tonight.

Without having a second thought he quickly types in an eager answer: “ _Yes”,_ after hurriedly swigging the rest of the bourbon that was in his tumbler.

And then the waiting game begun. He didn’t want to be prejudiced, but this ‘Captain’, who even picked that ridiculous nickname, seemed like a typical homophobic football jock. Who probably signed up on this because of a lost bet, most likely. Howard didn’t care, though, he just needed a quick fuck to take thoughts off some problems that happened on his work today.

After few minutes he was about to write someone else, when a reply came in.

‘ _Time and place?’_

Howard must’ve lost all of his self-preservation instincts, because no way a normal functioning human being would ever invite some random stranger, who seemingly could be much more stronger than him, into his apartment after few short messages.

***

Howard quickly gave himself a look-over in the mirror, before opening the doors. And when he did, he was at a loss of words: gorgeous baby blue eyes looked up to his face with such an open expression, that Howard sobered up a little bit, only a little, though.

“Oh”, is all he could muster up, while gawking at the ‘Captain’.

“Hi”, the blond said, looking at him from head-to-toe. First time in a long time, and that last time was when he was six years old and in front of his father, he felt self-conscious about himself: his ruffled state, slight, okay, strong smell of alcohol on his breath. He tried to straighten his back, but then his vision suddenly got blurry and there was nothing but darkness around him.

***

“..er! Mister!” he heard an echo and felt a cold splash of water on his face, then warm hands, gently patting his cheeks. He leaned into the touch, looking up with bleary eyes. And all he could see was a blond head with a halo of light surrounding it.

“Wow, if you’re an angel, I won’t promise not to sin”, he slurred with a goofy grin.

“Thank god, you’re up”, the other man huffed with relief, “Thought you actually died back there. Did you really drink a bottle of bourbon, all alone? How are you even alive”, he kept going on.

After Howard realized that, no, he didn't die and wasn't in heaven, of course, he'd be in hell if he did, Stark came back to his senses and he didn’t have time for ramblings of a stranger. He could already feel the beginning of the impending doom of a headache and all that has happened so far didn’t help him one bit. “Can you not?” Well, that came out harsher than he originally intended, but that made the guy clam up instantly, so he wasn't complaining.

“Right”, he said, “Well, at least let me fetch you an aspirin, for now, here, drink this”, Howard was given a glass of water, which he greedily guzzled down, welcoming the soothing coolness of it. He held up the glass to his forehead, when he heard the commotion from the bathroom. Groaning, he followed the sound.

“And what do you think you’re doing now?” Howard dragged, as he leaned on the door frame, lazily ogling the man, who was bent down, looking for something under the counter.

“Well, found the pills, but I accidentally dropped them”, he said, as he felt for the bottle of medication with more vigor.

“It’s fine, really, I should have them in my bedroom”, he suggested, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Oh really?” the blond said, as he slowly rose to his feet and made his way towards Howard.

Howard leaned into him, closing the short distance that was between them, anticipation settling in the pit of his groin. Even with the most hellish headache, his libido could be alive and kicking with no problems at all.

Howard doesn’t know when he closed his eyes, but when he felt and intrusion into his mouth a bitter taste was not the tongue he expected. He spluttered, looking up at the blond.

“What”

“Put a pill in your mouth, and no, I’m not kissing you when you’re piss drunk”, he pushed Howard out of the bathroom, and to the living room with a little smile, “You can barely walk straight, see?”

“Listen, ‘Captain’”, Howard started, but was interrupted.

“Just call me Steve”, he sighed, flushing a little but, “My friends signed me up for that site, and I thought I could give it a go, you know?”

“And you met a drunkard instead”, Howard finished for him, as he sat down on the couch. He already felt sleepy, eyes droopy.

“No, no. To be honest with you, I was actually terrified to come here, but my friend told me he won’t let me come back into the apartment, if I don’t spend it with someone tonight”, Steve clasped his hands, face full of guilt, “And then I came here and you passed out”.

Howard inwardly groaned, he just wanted a one night stand, he’s not a psychiatrist, damn it. Well, there goes his night. Yet he felt sympathetic towards Steve. He really shouldn’t do this, but…

“Well, you could stay at my place tonight and leave in the morning”, he suggested, yawning.

“Really?” Steve perked up, face lifting with a bright smile.

Howard knows he’s going to regret this, but, “Sure”, makes it out of his mouth before he could even process it, and he’s out cold again.


	3. Chapter 3

Howard groaned, when he woke up the next day with a killer of a headache. It felt like multiple bombs going off in his head. One would think you’d get used to alcohol over time, but Howard felt like it got worse each time.

“Urgh, why”, he continued, rubbing his eyes, thankful, that the blinds were shut, not letting the sunrays in, otherwise he’d be dead by now. When he fumbled in the dark, looking for his phone to check the time, his hands touched a cool object, realizing it’s a glass and full one at that, without a care, he greedily gulped it down. Nothing better than a good ol’ water.

A few moment later, he felt slightly better, enough to stand up and make his way towards the kitchen. A coffee would certainly boost his brain into waking up.

When he rounded around the corner he saw another man in the kitchen, if not the killer hangover he got at the moment, he’d have had enough intelligence and self-preservation instincts to at least be startled, but not now. Besides, the blond guy (not bad looking from behind, judging by his broad shoulders; Howard was impressed in his taste in men, even when drunk) was cooking and he could smell a faint aroma of a newly brewed coffee, so he wasn’t complaining.

Unceremoniously, he shuffled towards the coffee machine.

“Oh, hey”, he was greeted, to which he mumbled something resembling a greeting in return, “I hope you don’t have any weird allergies, I’ve made you fried eggs with bacon. Thought after last night you might be hungry.”

Last night. Right. Howard tried to summon up memories from the previous night, but his scrambled brains wouldn’t cooperate no matter what. So, assuming, Howard decided flirting would be the best option, as the guy stayed over, so they must’ve slept, and was cooking, therefore satiated enough.

Sipping from his cup, Howard swaggered towards the guy with a Cheshire grin plastered on his face, “Last night was adventurous wasn’t it”, he swayed his free hand, putting it at the back of the blond’s back, “Maybe we could repeat it all over again”, voice dropping few octaves, closing in to the guy.

He was dumbfounded, when a plate was roughly pushed into his midsection.

“Eggs?” the guy asked with an innocent smile. Well, guess he was the type not to play in the morning afterwards.

Howard took the plate and made his way to the table.

As they sat down facing each other, Howard eyed up the guy. Young, muscly, blue eyes, very tall. He really did regret not remembering this fantastic creature in front of him.

“Are the eggs okay?” he asked, making an eye-contact. One look was enough for Howard to feel like a dirty old man, his open eyes, regarding him with something that looked close to innocent young saint. Maybe it was the hangover, but Howard realized he hadn’t answered, and now his eyes started to dart across the other’s face.

“Uh, yeah, sure”, he answered, furrowing brows, mentally berating himself.

“You don’t remember anything, do you?” guy asked, putting his fork down and patting his mouth with a napkin.

“It was fantastic last night, darling”, Howard automatically answered, using all the charm he could muster up.

“What’s my name then”, he continued, putting his hands on the table. God, not this, Howard really didn’t want this.

“Uh, Adam?” which earned him a sigh, so he just confessed, “Look, I really don’t remember last night, but I guess so great that you’ve managed to fuck my brains out, literally”, he winked.

“Oh, don’t be sorry”, the guy frantically waved his hand with a wide eyed face, “I was just trying to assure you that I didn’t do anything while you were drunk”. Huh, that was interesting, that sent a warm feeling down Howard’s stomach.

“And you were really, I mean _really_ wasted when I came here in the first place. And then you passed out then puked all over yourself, and I cleaned it”, he finished with a smile, as if cleaning drunk men on Friday nights was a regular thing for him.

“Oh, shit, man”, Howard actually felt embarrassed, rarity for the past decade, “God, I’m an awful host, aren’t I”.

“It’s fine. And let me introduce myself again”, he beamed, reaching out with his hand, “Steve, Steve Rogers”.

Howard put his utensils down and grasped his hand in a firm handshake, “Howard Stark at your service”.

***

Howard was surprised to see the time to realize that it was already evening. They managed to talk whole day, moving their conversation from the kitchen to the living room. It was obvious they didn’t have much in common, and it was quite awkward at the beginning, but they talked and talked, until they reached the political topics. They had few discussions about current affairs, and Howard was surprised how knowledgeable Steve was.

They could’ve probably stayed all night that day, if not Steve’s phone buzzing.

“Mr. Stark, it was great talking with you, but my friends would think I’m dead if I’ll not return home now”, he stood up from the couch.

“Steve, you cleaned my vomit, I think we’re already past these honorifics, just call me Howard”, he, too stood up, his hands in his pockets, smiling at Steve, as they made their way towards the front door. “And for all the trouble, let me give you a lift to your place”.

“Oh, it’s okay”, Steve politely declined, being the well-mannered fella he is, “I can walk”.

“No, really, I insist”, Howard pressed grabbing his coat on his way, “Surely, the place you’re renting is far from here, no offence but you’re a university student”.

“True enough”, Steve chuckled, putting on his jacket as well.

***

“How are you not mugged around here every day”, Howard said, looking around with horror from his car.

“Well, one wouldn’t attack someone like me, although I used to be real lanky back in my freshman year”, Steve said, smiling fondly, remembering his past.

“Well, what happened then?”

“Sudden growth spurt, and I picked up P.E class, then all the football team happened, it’s all a blur now. But now, I’m just happy where I am right now”, Steve looked outside the window, his smile shifting into a face of uncertainty, “But after graduation, I have no idea what I’m going to do”.

“Aw, you’ll go far in life, buddy. From our day spent together, I can tell you’re a good man. A rare trait nowadays”, Howard friendly patted Steve’s knee.

“Thanks”, Steve smiled with his eyes downwards, Howard quickly removed his hand from him, “Well, I should get going now, thanks for the lift”, he gave one final nod and opened his door.

Howard didn’t move until the door to his building closed with a loud bang, jolting him out of his mini trance. He looked at his hand that touched Steve’s knee, so warm and close, yet, so far. He definitely wanted more.


	4. Chapter 4

“Well, you seem distracted. No surprise, who snatched away all your attention this time, Howard”, Peggy tossed a folder on his desk, as she made her way to his office’s window.

“Knocking would be polite, y’know?” Howard looked up, putting down the pen he had been holding for the past 10 minutes, “And besides I could be _busy_ ”.

“What, snogging yet another secretary?” when Howard gave her a mock gasp, she rolled her eyes, “Your last one quit today, suddenly”, she gave him a hard look, “I hope you don’t have anything to do with that”.

“Well, can’t blame a fella for chasing after a pretty secretary”, he shrugged, not really caring.

“You’re _married_!” she exclaimed, throwing he hands up in disbelief, “If I was Maria, I’d have castrated you already”, her voice raising with each word.

“Well, let’s all be happy that she’s somewhere around the Mediterranean sea, sipping yet another cocktail, surrounded by other beauties”, he stood up as well, making his way towards Peggy.

“She deserves that, even more, seeing how you’re ruining yet another woman’s life”, she pursed her lips, crossing her arms in front of her. One wouldn’t dare to cross her if she looked like that, “At the very least you could try to be a good husband and a father for your only son!”

“Look, it wasn’t my fault that she got knocked up”, he raked his hair with his fingers, suddenly fed up with all the accusations, “I was sixteen at a time! And drunk, and she wasn’t even drunk, so why is everyone pointing fingers at me, when she was the one who took advantage of me, but, no, Howard is always the bad guy!” Howard was already yelling and pacing around his office, letting out all the bottled up frustrations for the first time.

“And guess what, I know that I’m a shitty father, and I don’t have time to be a good one, if I want to have them the very best, you need the fucking money for that, and guess what, sitting around in the house, playing the nice guy doesn’t keep your stomach full at nights”, Howard finished, stopping only to reach for his cabinet, throat dry, yearning for something strong, like bourbon.

He was rummaging through his assortments of drinks, looking for the specific bottle he saves for a bad day. That’s when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, he swiftly turned around to see Peggy teary eyed looking up at him.

“Oh, Peggy, pity’s the last thing I need right now”, only now he felt wet trails of tears on his cheeks, throat tight, he couldn’t utter another word.

“I know”, she said as she softly whispered, hugging him tightly, “I’m really sorry for blaming you blindly, without listening to your side of the story, but still, you could've at least encouraged or wrote to your son, just a call”.

Few moments passed until a knock on the door sobered them up.

“Right”, Peggy said crisply, quickly wiping away any remains of her tears, fixing her clothes on her way to the door, “Howard I want you to meet someone”, she smiled, opening the door for a tall woman, who walked in with such grave and self-importance, Howard thought she was a client. Very important one if she came to the CEO and was personally assisted with COO.

“Meet Dottie Underwood, your new secretary starting today”, Peggy smiled mysteriously at Howard. She definitely planned something, Howard was sure of it.

“Oh, hello, Mr. Stark”, she pleasantly smiled, “I’m so happy to finally meet you,”.

“Well, you could call me Howard if you want, sweetheart”, Howard said, how many times already? He was sure there would be more.

***

Later that night Howard received a message from Peggy.

‘ _Make a move on my girlfriend and you’re dead’_

Accompanied with another one few minutes later.

_‘P.S I won’t be the one that will release your spirit to the netherworld, it’d be her haha good luck’_

Well, that took all the fun from his working environment. He knew there was something really scary about Dottie, but he guessed if she was hired by Peggy herself, he’ll have to trust her.

***

“Yes, of course I’ll come to his sixteenth birthday, Jarv, who do you think I am”, Howard pours into two tumblers, “What the boy wants?”

“Maybe instead of asking me, you could’ve asked himself”, Edwin cut him, reaching for one of the glasses, “Ana is worried, that boy has already become distant towards you. By all means we’re loving having him living with us for the past few years, but the boy needs his real father, not his god-parents”.

Howard kept nodding, until Jarvis finished his lecturing. Howard knew it was too late when Tony was ten and he couldn’t make it to his birthday because he had forgotten about it.

During Tony’s infancy, Maria and Howard tried their best to raise him, but soon enough Howard understood that he had to choose between his company and his family. He’d rather die than let others run his company that his father left behind.

They were young and stupid. Howard at a fragile naïve age of seventeen, thinking everything would go fine. Until his father died, and he had to work hard to impress the board of directors, who were just waiting for him to fail like vultures. So he did everything he could to at least have a slightest impact on the company, coming up with the most . And look at him now running Stark Industries and owning it. But at the stake of his family.

Maria grew distant by years, as Howard preferred to spend his time at the office rather than at home. Also his screwing around his secretaries and other women didn’t help him one bit. Therefore she started to travel more, leaving little Tony at his god-parents, Edwin and Ana Jarvis, close friends of Howard.

Howard wasn’t blaming her, no. they both messed around, and coming from both wealthy families, they sealed the deal with a marriage. Convenient for their parents, not so much for them.

“… and don’t mess this up this time, Howard, it’s a really important event for him, all his friends and close people are going to come, okay?” Edwin gave him a look that was both pleading and commanding.

“Sure”, Howard easily said, finishing his drink, he should stop drinking in his office, but that’s how he has run this company for years now.

***

Late at night, when Howard was drawing schemes for the next weapon for the production, when he was startled by his phone buzzing.

_‘Hey’_

Memories of Steve flooded his mind. Easygoing talks and laughter, Howard has completely forgotten them because of all the work related stress and family matters, seemed like it happened decades ago.

Reluctantly he greeted back with ‘ _Hey_ ’.

‘ _How you ben? Isit ok t call you rigt now?_ ’

Without replying, Howard hit the call button.

“Hey, Howard”, Steve sounded cheerful.

“Hey yourself”, he answered tiredly. He rubbed his eyes that started to hurt.

“I just wanted to talk with you”, Steve dragged with a garbled tone, there was loud music playing in the background, Howard could hardly make out the words he was saying.

“Are you drunk? Of course you are. Where are you?” Howard glanced at the wall clock. Two in the morning, he sighed audibly.

“Well I was just drinking”, Steve hiccupped, “And then I saw bourbon and thought about you”, he trailed off.

Starting to get somewhat annoyed Howard cut through his obvious drunk ramblings. “Give the phone to the bartender, will you?”

Surprisingly, Steve obeyed Howard.

He later on got the address of the place, which was not far from his place (how did Steve afford drinks in this area was beyond Howard’s comprehension). Quickly grabbing his keys and picking his jacket, he went out to get Steve.

***

The club was a mess. Sweaty bodies grinding against each other, smell of alcohol strong in the air. Howard scrunched up his face in disgust, when yet another hand grabbed his body, drunkenly inviting him for a dance. Shrinking away from the crows, he slowly moved towards the bar, careful not to bump into anyone.

“Heey, Howard”, came a honey sweet voice from his left. Shortly after he was pushed back by a blonde woman in a skimpy dress. “You remember me, right?” she frowned at his puzzled expression, “You said you loved me, but you never called me back”.

God, the things he said when he was drunk and eager to bed anyone moving. Howard took a calming breath and as pleasantly as a man who got out of his house in a middle of a night to pick up his new interest can be smiled and said, “I’m not Howard”, and untangled her hands from himself and quickly slid into the crowd, zig-zagging through it, looking for Steve.

Finally spotting him, he called out, but it seemed like Steve was far too drunk to even hear him.

“C’mon, buddy, we gotta get you out of here”, without bothering to check whether Steve had enough money to pay for his drink, Howard covered it with his own card.

Half-dragging, half-pushing, they finally managed to get out of the rowdy place. Fresh air seemed to sober up Steve a little bit, as he was much more manageable to move around.

After Howard pushed Steve into his car and was sitting there, holding his wheels tightly. Now what? He could drop him off at his dorm, but he didn’t know the door, and Steve was clearly not sober enough to know the difference between a basement and a roof, so one option left, his apartment. Which was fine, Howard noticed.

As they drove, the silence was deafening to Howard, so he started with, “You’re awfully quiet, aren’t you?” When he stopped by the red light and looked at his companion, he saw two intense eyes boring into his. Heavily breathing through his nose, Howard reminded himself that Steve was drunk. Go away, bad thoughts. So Howard stopped trying to start a conversation and focused more on the road.

After a few minutes of driving, Howard felt a warm hand resting on his thigh. Good thing he wasn’t a twitchy type of guy, or else they would’ve been already in a wrecked car.

“ _Steve”_ , Howard warned, eyes quickly darting to Steve, who started to lean into his personal space, making it difficult to concentrate on driving. His dick was already twitching in his pants, interested on the warm, creeping hand, that inched closer with each second.

“Steve, take that hand away”, he hissed, as he pedaled more to get this over.

“But you like it”, Steve murmured, breath stinking with alcohol. That made Howard recoil.

“As much as I want to say no, I do, but we can’t”, Howard took his hands off his thigh.

Afterwards, the ride was uneventful. Steve curled at his side, Howard speeding without a care, it was night, no one cared enough.

When he parked his car, Steve obediently followed Howard to the elevator, where he stood way too close than necessary.

“You don’t have to stand so close, y’know”, Howard remarked after a while, when he was so close that Howard could smell slight hints of Steve’s deodorant.

“What if I want to”, Steve advanced, crowding Howard into the elevator’s corner, nosing at his neck.

Howard wanted to protest, but he felt tingling down in his belly, aroused. Feeling the closeness. He was about to grab Steve’s shirt and pull him in, when the elevator dinged, and the doors slid open.

Right. Drunk Steve. Responsible Howard. It’s going to be a hard night.

**Author's Note:**

> So, what do you think bout this fic?  
> 


End file.
